Marin Podubnîi: ICT can completely change the way we do agriculture

What motivated you to participate in an entirely new event for our country like Science SLAM Moldova?

I have seen the Science SLAM stages in other countries like Ukraine, Germany and the Republic of Moldova. I liked the ideas that are being promoted in the competition and I decided to make public my ideas, which can generate a change in our country.

How difficult or simple is it for a researcher to explain to everyone in accessible terms science?

I am a professor at the Technical University and I am very conscious of the fact that the student needs to bring him an analogy of his daily life before explaining his research through mathematical and scientific methods. All processes and innovations have an analogy in nature, only in another form. That’s why it has not been so difficult for me to explain my project.

How are you going to amaze the audience with the presentation at the Science SLAM Moldova?

At the Great Final, I will present the development of the research idea from the first semifinal of the competition. But the new project will have a greater impact on agriculture. I will tell visitors about creating a monitoring and evidence system. For farmers, it is very important to monitor the climatic parameters because different plants are exposed to the risk factor of getting different diseases if specific conditions are not met.

Monitoring the rise or fall of different climatic parameters would allow these risk factors to fall. In the project I am presenting, the farmer will receive a notification by a message when this risk becomes higher. Changes in temperature are visible today so that for example some southern plants do not have optimal conditions for development in this region and there is a need to change the cultivation area.

The parameters of temperature, humidity, wind direction, the chemical composition of the soil vary across the country. Monitoring them will lead to the exact knowledge of where we can cultivate certain plants, to be very productive, minimizing unnecessary expenses for farmers. In the future, ICT will completely change the way farming is done today.

What is the main purpose of the research? How could it contribute to the development of the Republic of Moldova?

The idea of this invention is to develop organic and quality agriculture with minimum investment and maximum profit. If we take a walk through agricultural markets in cities or villages, we can see many apparently qualitative products but imported. At the same time, our indigenous products are of inferior quality, with a high level of nitrates because domestic farmers are forced to use an excess of fertilizer. If he could take the soil sample and be able to instantly analyze it, he would quickly find out what is the pH of the soil, what amount of phosphorus and sulfur it contains, and could make a decision on the spot. Now he has to send his samples to the lab and wait a few weeks for a result.

In this way, precision farming would facilitate the growth of a wider variety of crops, depending on its area and potential.

What message do you have for those who have not come to Science SLAM Modova?

There are two categories of people: those interested in science and those who want to know something new. I would propose them to come to the Great Final because we will be three competitors with three different themes and fields. You will see how science in IT, medicine, and history is done in our country.